Accepting the Truth of being Old One day and Taking Care of the Old Citizens

We should never forget that we will be old very soon and we will be treated in the same way we treat our old ancestors. Our younger generations will return back what they will get from us.

By Moshiur RahmanPublished 4 years ago • 4 min read

Accepting the truth is very important for better lives.

The biggest truth of our life is that we all have to go through the process of aging and die one day while most of us have a tendency to be forgetful about this in the early days of our lives. But there are multiple benefits of acknowledging this truth and having a realistic view throughout our lives. There is a saying, "everything begins with the end in mind". This is one of seven habits of the most effective people, illustrated by Stephen R. Covey in his book 7 Habits of Highly Effective People. The spirit of this habit is that everything has double creations, one in our mind and one in reality. When we are able to visualize something fully in our mind, we are ready to create that physically in reality. Failure to create a holistic picture in our imagination impedes the successful manifestation of our targets and goals. Our life is no exception. We stay in this world for a short period of time. As a result, we should have a clear picture of what we want to achieve in our lives so that we can utilize our lifetimes most effectively and efficiently.

Our lifetimes have different phases through which we go in the process of aging and do not remain the same productive and efficient in each phase. In the early and middle stages of our lives, we learn, educate ourselves and work hard for livelihood. In our old lives, our body and soul need rest because, in this phase, we have reduced stamina and strength to tackle the day-to-day challenges. The responsibility to handle hard jobs and earn a livelihood generally transfers to the younger generations.

The mid-stage of our lives is the most challenging one. This is the time when we have to learn, earn, make a family, raise children and take care of our parents. Sometimes, we remain so engaged in our job and earning money that we become easily forgetful about our family and parents. However, it is very important to accept that we will also become old very soon and need the care of our family and children before we close our eyes.

While taking care of our senior ancestors, we have to consider a few points in our minds. Firstly, we have to take care of them verbally, emotionally and physically. Verbal aspects involve conversing with them in such a way that they do not feel hurt. We must remember that they are helpless, feeble and vulnerable like kids. They do not have anything to defend against. That is why we must not talk in such a way that may give them down feelings, hopelessness and frustration. The second most important thing is their emotional state. We always remember that they are already tried to face the harsh reality of life to feed us and they are no more in a position to tolerate the survival emotions like fear, anger, disgust or shame. They must only be treated with the attachment emotions like love, joy, excitement and, most importantly, love. They only deserve respect from us. No hate. we should not talk and behave in such a way that may create an emotional burden on them. Thirdly, taking care of their health is very crucial. With the processing of aging, their body parts and organs start to become weaker and inactive. Various types of diseases and old age complications become very common. This is the most critical time when they need mental and physical care. Always we must remember one thing that we have to go through the same process in our lives. If we take care of them properly, we will also be treated in a similar way.

With the advent of advanced technology and a high standard of living, there is no denying the fact that the generation gap has been a big problem between the young and the old groups. the creation of knowledge and its rapid transfer has become easier than that of the past, which is responsible for the generation gap. But we must always be indebted to our ancestors for what we have already inherited from them. We should not be locked into any verbal or behavioral clash or conflict with them to prove that we are better than them. We will never behave like a coward to win over them. Rather, we must be brave and courageous enough to take care of them, uprising the strength of our character and acknowledging that we will also go through a similar process of aging very soon. During that time, we may also have to tackle the problem of the generation gap more fiercely when the younger generations will be smarter more quickly. So, if we can not feel the importance of taking care of senior citizens and instilling that value properly among our children, our children will also not take care of us one day and we can not close our eyes in peace.